Privacy Policy

Copyright

All material available or accessible from this Website or any web sites associated with Ballarat Real Estate Pty Ltd or Bendigo Ballarat Real Estate Pty Ltd is strictly copyright material owned by Ballarat Real Estate Pty Ltd and Bendigo Ballarat Real Estate Pty Ltd and any of its related entities. No part may be reproduced or copied by any process except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968.

Disclaimer

Items presented in connection with the Website are for information purposes only. The information is provided solely on the basis that readers will be entirely responsible for making their own judgements and assessments of the matters discussed and are advised to verify all relevant representations, statements and information contained in or in connection with this site. Information on this Website should not be regarded as a substitute for professional legal, financial, real estate or other expert advice. Information on this web site should not considered accurate and no guarantees or warranties are made as to accuracy.

This Website may contain links to other internet sites that are external to Ballarat Real Estate Pty Ltd or Bendigo Ballarat Real Estate Pty Ltd. We take reasonable care in linking other internet sites but have no direct control over the content of the linked internet sites, or the changes that may occur to the content on those sites. It is the responsibility of the reader/user to make their own judgements and assessment of the accuracy, currency, reliability and correctness of information contained in the linked internet sites. Links to other internet sites are inserted for convenience and do not constitute endorsement of material at those sites, or any associated organisation, product or service. We are not responsible for the privacy practice of linked internet sites. You should make your own enquiries as t the privacy policies of any linked sites.

Ballarat Real Estate Pty Ltd and Bendigo Ballarat Real Estate Pty Ltd accepts no responsibility or liability for unsuitable, incomplete or inaccurate material that may be present on our web sites. Ballarat Real Estate Pty Ltd or Bendigo Ballarat Real Estate Pty Ltd its subsidiary companies, its directors, officers, employees, agents and related entities responsible for maintaining this Website, make no claim or warranty as to the accuracy of the information on its site, or the accuracy of the information provided by third parties connected to the site, or in respect of links provided to other internet sites, the accuracy of the information on those sites. Users of our web sites should make their own independent enquires to confirm the accuracy of any information on this web site.

Whilst every effort has been made to ensure that the information on our web site is accurate, Ballarat Real Estate Pty Ltd and Bendigo Ballarat Real Estate Pty Ltd will not accept any liability for any loss or damage which may be incurred by any person or entity acting in reliance upon the information.

Privacy Policy

Ballarat Real Estate Pty Ltd and Bendigo Ballarat Real Estate Pty Ltd may collect your personal information in the course of our business. This Privacy Policy sets out the way we collect, manage and use personal information and how we handle privacy issues.

“Personal Information” is information or an opinion about an identified individual or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, whether or not the information or opinion is true and whether or not it is recorded in a material form. The types of Personal Information generally collected by us may differ, depending on whether you are or would like to become a Ballarat Real Estate Pty Ltd and Bendigo Ballarat Real Estate Pty Ltd vendor, purchaser, rental provider, tenant, supplier, employee, client, Owners Corporation member,agent or independent contractor of us.

We adopt the Australian Privacy Principles contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Act). We understand and appreciate that you are concerned about privacy, particularly in relation to the use and disclosure of Personal Information. This policy sets out how we obtain and use your Personal Information.

Your Personal Information

  1. The personal information that the Company may collect includes but is not limited to, your name, e-mail address, residential or other addresses, telephone numbers, gender, date of birth, your profession or occupation, transaction information, billing details, information about products or services which might suit you, preferences and criteria information.
  2. We collect personal information through information provided by you at our open for inspections, your access of our Website (refer below), by telephone, email, letter or fax, during conversations you have with our representatives, through your engagement of us to provide services, through contracts entered into by you, through completed surveys, social media, third party and or linked web sites, feedback or competitions. We may also require details of your company’s ABN and/or ACN, financial information including bank account and credit card details, profit and loss statements, balance sheets, your employer and occupation details and title and mortgage details of any relevant property. We may be required to take images of the inside of your home via photos or video.
  3. Via Social Media Sites, we may obtain other information about you which may itself constitute Personal Information or which, when combined with other information, is capable of identifying you, including photos, videos and any other information that you include on our Social Media Sites or sites linked to our Social Media Sites (Other Sites). The level of information to which we have access may depend on your privacy settings and policies on such Other Sites.
  1. We will take reasonable steps to protect the personal information we collect, in both paper and electronic form, from misuse and loss as well as from unauthorised access, modification and disclosure. However we take not liability for instances where your personal information is disclosed to unauthorised persons or entities.

How we collect your Personal Information

  1. You consent to your Personal Information being used in accordance with this Privacy Policy Statement by doing any one or more of the following:
  • By making a general or specific telephone, email, onsite or other enquiry with us;
  • by communicating with us or by continuing to request our services, including but not limited to by attending one of our offices, attending an open for inspection, making enquiries via internet, email or phone;
  • by providing us with your contact details;
  • by accessing any of our web sites or participating in an online enquiry;
  • when you engage us or discuss engaging us to provide services or advice to you;
  • when you negotiate with us in respect of purchasing or renting a property;
  • when you provide your details to us at an “open for inspection” property, rental property inspection or an auction;
  • when we inspect a rental property or property for sale;
  • by providing to us or us collecting your business card;
  • by visiting any website or social media site established by us, including but not limited to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, Youtube and Linked In (Social Media Sites);
  • by participating in any activity on a Social Media Site including but not limited to entering competitions, subscribing to our blog, posting, pinning or uploading any material on any Social Media Site, following, liking and/or commenting on us or anything on any Social Media Site.
  1. We may also collect personal information from:
  • third parties such as credit reporting agencies and or historical reference sources;
  • publicly available sources of information;
  • any other collection of or incidental or directly or indirectly related to the services we may be able to provide to you.

The purposes for which we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information

  1. We collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information for our business and activities, and in our efforts to expand and improve our business, including for the following purposes:
  • to provide our products and services to you and to communicate with you;
  • to monitor or improve the quality and standard of service provided to you or to other consumers by us;
  • to communicate to prospective or actual vendors, purchasers, landlords, tenants and Owners Corporation members;
  • to provide access to our Website, to assess its performance, improve its operation and develop new features for our Website;
  • to communicate with you to better understand your needs through competitions, market research, customer loyalty programs or to comply with our legal obligations;
  • handling privacy complaints and issues;
  • performing research and analysis about our services;
  • to provide and notify you of products, services, offers, promotions or marketing of services or new services that may be of interest to you;
  • to send you emails, SMS and push notifications, however, you may elect to opt-out of such correspondence at any time by notifying us in writing;
  • to conduct business processing functions including providing personal information to our related bodies corporate, contractors, service providers, advertisers, sponsors or other third parties;
  • enforcing the terms and conditions of our engagement with you;
  • conducting appropriate credit or history checks;
  • referral to a mortgage broker or financier or other third party service or goods provider;
  • for the administrative, marketing (including direct marketing), planning, product or service development, quality control, survey and research purposes of the Company, its related bodies corporate, franchisees, partners, real estate agents, employees, contractors, advertisers, sponsors or service providers;
  • to comply with any law, rule, regulation, lawful and binding determination, decision or direction of a regulator or government.

Who we may share your personal information with

  1. We may share your information in the following circumstances. These circumstances should not be considered comprehensive and exclusive and do not affect our rights to share your personal information in other ways to the extent permitted by law. With:
  • our partners, employees, affiliates, subsidiaries, related bodies corporate, contractors and service providers, web hosting providers, IT systems administrators, mailing houses, couriers, payment processors, data entry service providers, electronic network administrators;
  • our marketing partners, consultants, retailers and other third parties with whom we have commercial relationships, for business, marketing, and related purposes;
  • with third parties to provide you a service you requested through a partnership or promotional offering made by a third party or us;
  • with the general public if you submit content in a public forum, such as blog comments, social media posts, or other features of our services that are viewable by the general public;
  • with third parties with whom you choose to let us share information, for example other apps or Websites that integrate with our Website; and
  • any organisation with your consent;

together (Third Parties).

  1. We, or the Third Parties, may disclose specific individual information if we or they reasonably believe that it’s necessary to comply with applicable laws or regulations, or to protect our interests, our business partners, affiliates or its guests, or the interests of our Third Parties.
  2. We may also disclose your personal information:
  • As required by law;
  • To enforce our terms and conditions; and
  • In connection with a substantial corporate transaction, such as the sale of our business, a divestiture, merger, consolidation, or asset sale.
  1. Any Third Parties to whom we may disclose personal information may have their own privacy policies which describe how they use and disclose personal information. Those policies will govern use, handling and disclosure of your personal information once we have shared it with those third parties as described in this Privacy Policy. These entities or their servers may be located in various places around the world.
  2. If you do not wish your personal information to be used in the manner set out in this Privacy Policy, please let us know using the contact details on our website or email us atbre@ballaratrealestate.com.au.

Website use and Cookies

  1. Tracking technologies such as cookies may be used on our website to recognise a user’s browser each time that you visit our site and to track which pages you visit whilst on our site and also to push advertisements to your internet protocol address. Cookies are pieces of information that a website transfers to a computer’s hard drive for record keeping purposes. Most web browsers are set to accept tracking technologies such as cookies. These tracking technologies do not personally identify the user. If you do not wish to receive any cookies you may set your browser to refuse them. However, your use of our website may be affected.
  2. If you view the online webpage relating to any of our properties for lease or sale, you may enquire further about the property by manually completing an online enquiry form

If you ‘like’ or ‘follow’ us or a property via our Facebook or Linked In pages, we may be able to view your Facebook page, subject to your Facebook privacy settings.

17.  The Website is hosted in Australia, if you do not reside in Australia, then by using the Website you consent to the transfer of any personal information to Australia.

Access to your Personal Information

  1. If you wish to access your personal information held by us you may do so by written request.
  2. If personal information held by us is inaccurate or out of date you have the right to request it to be updated or corrected.

Direct marketing

  1. You consent to and authorise us to include your personal information in a database compiled by us for use in direct marketing by us or Third Parties. If you do not wish to receive marketing material from us, you can opt-out by contacting us via the details located on our website or email us at bre@ballaratrealestate.com.au.
  2. Emails, SMS and newsletters from the Website may allow you to opt-out of further mailings.
  3. If you “opt-out”, we will not be able to remove your personal information from the databases of business partners, affiliates, or third parties which we have already shared your personal information with as at the date of your request to opt-out.
  4. In relation to personal information from children, we do not knowingly collect personal information from individuals under 18 years of age. If a user is a parent or guardian, please do not allow your children to submit personal information without the parent or guardian’s prior permission.

General

  1. We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy from time to time. The latest Privacy Policy will be available from our offices and from the Website.
  2. If you have any queries about the privacy policy or require further information on how we handle personal information, you are invited to contact our office during business hours via the contact details on our Website.
  3. If you would like to make a complaint about our handling of your personal information or if you think we have breached the Australian Privacy Principles or the Act, please contact us with your complaint in writing. We will endeavour to deal with your complaint as quickly as possible. We may give a copy of your complaint to any affected party for their comment so we can properly investigate any issues. We will determine what (if any) action we should take to resolve the complaint and notify you of our decision and our reasons.
  4. If you are not satisfied with the way we have dealt with your complaint you may file a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
  5. As our Website is linked to the internet, and the internet is inherently insecure, we cannot provide any assurance regarding the security of transmission of information you communicate to us online. We also cannot guarantee that the information you supply will not be intercepted while being transmitted over the internet. Accordingly, any personal information or other information which you transmit to us online is transmitted at your own risk. Through using our web sites you hereby indemnify Ballarat Real Estate Pty Ltd or Bendigo Ballarat Real Estate Pty Ltd from any action of liability.
  6. The Company complies with the Spam Act 2003 and best practice guidelines in relation to the contents of its commercial electronic messages. We only send e-mail advertising with each addressee’s consent, including its address and contact details in every e-mail promotion and ensure the inclusion of a functional unsubscribe facility.